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Topic: Arusha School Disarsters (Read 4299 times)

While at Arusha school there was a couple that I can remember of. One was the earth quake in 1963, I was in class when it happened. The other not so much as a disarster, I came to school one morning and there used to be some huge gum trees by the girls dorms. In the night before, there had been a storm and the lightning had split one tree right down the middle.Mike Brown.

I also remember the storm and the tree coming down and Rushbrooke cutting it up next day; also the bridge over the Temi collapsing at least twice; also the tunnels incident (after the Great Escape was screened!)

I remember two earthquakes. I can't actually say I remember the one as us Roman Catholics had gone to church up on the hill and when we got back we were told about the earthquake. We hadn't felt a thing. The other one about the blue gum trees - I remember very visibly. I was still very young, maybe eight or nine. Anna Danks was my dormitory prefect (head) and Christine Prinsloo was the dorm prefect in the next door dormitory. During the night there was a lot of thunder and lightning and suddenly an almighty crash. I remember saying to myself that I don't care if I die - the dormitory was just flooded with light for so long from the lightning and the thunder just continued. Next morning we went out and saw that a blue gum tree had been hit by the lighting and fell right above Christine's bed - several feet away from my bed. I also remember being told not to touch the fallen tree as it may give me an electric shock. It is still so vivid after more than 40 years now.

I remember that storm so well , you could smell it coming from miles away. I was lucky as i was in the dorm directly downstairs. As for earthquakes..they became an everyday thing , would wake up in the morning to find beds moved in the night!